Atikokan Amateur Radio Club

Serving amateur radio operators and
providing emergency communications for Atikokan and area


All material copyright © Atikokan Amateur Radio Club
E-mail: VE3RIB@shaw.ca
Snail mail: P.O. Box 2106, Atikokan, Ontario P0T 1C0

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VE3RIB repeater
Atikokan, ON
147.120 +


VE3RIB-1 digi
Atikokan, ON
144.390 (APRS)

VE3RIB-2 digi
Flanders, ON
144.390 (APRS)

VA3EOA station
Atikokan EOC

VE3YIB station
Atikokan Airport




Winlink RMS
VA3EOA

Features of VE3RIB, Mark III

During the winter of 2009/2010, Warren (VE3FYN) built the third version of the club repeater, VE3RIB. The repeater was installed on 2 Febuary 2010 moved to the Atikokan Airport in 2016. Shown on the left of the photo, this new and improved repeater includes:

The radios:

  • A 110 watt Motorola MSR2000 radio.
  • An Advanced Receiver pre-amp with 24dB gain.
  • An IRLP link to VE3DRY in Dryden, and the Pinetree Intertie linked repeater system.
  • An APRS digipeater using a GE-MVS radio and a TNC-X TNC.

The controller:

  • A six port RLC Club Deluxe II controller.
  • Telephone autopatch.
  • Internal and external temperature sensors with reporting and alarms.
  • Power outage alarm.

The power supplies:

  • A dedicated power supply for the MSR2000.
  • An Astron RM35A for all auxiliary equipment.

Backup power:

  • Backup battery power to the MSR2000 via the main power supply.
  • A fold-back circuit built by VE3FYN that reduces power output to 25 watts when on battery power.
  • Over-the-air alarm when operating on battery power, which announces current battery voltage.
  • Backup battery power to all auxiliary equipment via the secondary power supply.
  • A 3000 watt generator for long-term backup power.


Nine cavities make it all work.

On a rack behind the repeater, there is a second rack of cavities.

  • On the bottom, a hybrid ring duplexer provides the receive/transmit separation for the repeater.
  • Four cavities on the top of the rack split-out 144.390 MHz, allowing us to operate the digipeater on the same antenna.
  • A ninth cavity behind the rack, really a band-pass filter, provides static and lightning protection for the pre-amp. (The incoming signal passes through the band-pass filter first, then through the four notch/pass cavities. A 144.390 signal is sent to the APRS radio, and everything else goes to the hybrid ring, and eventually to the repeater radio.)

On the left, VE3FYN (Warren) installs and aligns the beam antenna to link VE3RIB with VE3UPP in December 2009 (at minus 20° Celcius).

The voice repeater VE3RIB and the digipeater VE3RIB-1 share an antenna. This antenna is only feet away from our Weatheradio station, which broadcasts at 50 watts.

The 3000 watt backup generator is tested monthly.

Our Repeater VE3RIB

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